The relationship between innovation and compliance
Innovation and compliance; how do they influence each other? Many food and beverage manufacturers struggle with restrictive compliance regulations – others with driving innovation without interfering with compliance procedures. The key to achieving both, is to maintain a relationship between these two factors.
The driving force in the food and beverage industry
A primary growth driver for manufacturers is providing customers with their wants and demands, which are constantly changing. To stay ahead of the curve, product researchers and developers have to think outside the box – in other words, they need to innovate their development processes.
Consumers have become exceptionally savvy – they want to know what a product is made of, if it is organic, if it was sustainably sourced, when it was produced, and how long it will last.
Millennials, environmentally-friendly, and health-conscience shoppers are reading labels and learning to speak the language of manufacturers.
Innovation – an essential ingredient
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide real-time data and opinions, trends, and healthy food options like never before. They spread information quickly, and users are likely to latch onto these ideas just as quickly before spreading it to their own audiences.
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Regulations, Speed-to-Market and Innovation: How to stay compliant and competetive in an ever-changing market place.
Social media can present a huge advantage to innovative organizations that strive to provide cutting-edge products and services, but there can also be negative consequences. Innovation cannot occur at the cost of compliance.
Recipe-based food and beverage manufacturers must be adaptable, where their growth and success call for innovative solutions that feature data as a strategic asset, while simultaneously complying to industry regulations.
Compliance – an innovation strategy
Innovation cannot ignore the need for strict compliance because it insures the safety, health and wellbeing of consumers. It also protects customers from deceptive advertising and fraud.
Complying also means providing a comfortable level of accountability to your customers. Customers consistently praise, support, and are loyal to organizations that voluntarily implement specific company-wide practices and processes that ensure their products adhere to regulatory requirements and legislation.
Conversely, they shun products that do not comply or attempt to evade protective food safety regulations.
There can be no question that compliance influences innovation – but with best practices, collaboration, and real-time, end-to-end solutions, food and beverage manufacturers can provide a successful, rapid launch of new products while effectively managing updates to existing recipes.
SpecPage’s services and software can allow users to meet this success by combining comprehensive tools with relevant regulatory databases to streamline company development and innovative processes. An integration of SpecPage’s services will surely deliver seamless data management while maintaining the necessary innovation and compliance.
